Alibaba raked in an astounding $9.3 billion in sales in the first 12 hours of Singles’ Day in China, the world’s biggest online shopping event, exceeding the whole day’s number in 2014, within just the first hour the online behemoth took in $3.9 billionThat one hour figure is almost double the $2 billion spent in the same time period last year. It’s also double the total sales of the 2014 Cyber Monday in the U.S. during the entire day.The event kicked off at midnight and $1 billion was made in the first eight minutes. Just two years ago it took a leisurely 50 minutes to reach the same figure. In 30 minutes, the online retailer reported taking in $3.1 billion and by 8 AM that number had risen to $6.56 billion.

Another interesting development was that within the first 90 minutes, more than 72 percent of all sales were done through Alibaba’s mobile application, also making this one of the most heavily-tracked instances in Alibaba’s mobile history.By the end of the first hour, Alibaba’s logistics division, Cainiao, had processed over 100 million orders.

The shopping bonanza was opened in Beijing by Alibaba with a gala ceremony at the Water Cube attended by Chinese and foreign celebrities such as Zhao Wei and Daniel Craig. The event was televised on Hunan TV and streamed live on Youku Tudou (which Alibaba recently acquired).

11/11 represents a logistical nightmare for delivery companies with an estimated 760 million parcels needing to be posted around the country after today.Shanghai-based Zhongtong (ZTO) Express, one of China’s largest couriers currently employs a quarter of a million people and has 28,000 delivery vehicles. They have also taken on 40,000 extra workers, and 7,000 vehicles, as well as opening more sorting centers, to cope with demand.“We don’t treat Singles Day like business; it’s our responsibility,” said Zheng Chao, its marketing director.Singles’ Day is also known as Double Eleven in reference to the day on which it falls and was started on November 13, 1993 by single students in Nanjing who were looking for an excuse to buy themselves presents.In an attempt to cash in on that quirky tradition, Alibaba launched their annual online sale on Singles’ Day in 2009. At that time, just 27 merchants took part.From those relatively inauspicious beginnings the shopping extravaganza has spectacularly snowballed since then and now easily eclipses both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year 27,000 merchants took part, with Alibaba’s e-commerce sites generating a huge $9.3 billion (£6.1bn) in sales. This time around there are some 40,000 sellers and sales could reach over $13 billion.Without a doubt, this news comes as a welcome relief to Alibaba. Although it open in New York last year with a record-breaking USD 21.6 billion IPO, it saw a 40% drop in value within the next 12 months. With a modest improvement in sales in October followed by record-breaking sales for Singles’ Day, things are looking up for China’s largest online retailer, despite lawsuits and accusations that they are getting rich by selling counterfeit goods. Maybe Jack Ma won’t have to change professions after all.Oceanne Zhang, a Shanghai-based e-commerce expert from Kantar Retail, said she expected sales to easily exceed those of last year. For the first time, some Chinese e-commerce sites have been offering discounted items for a week in advance, on the condition that they are paid for on 11 November.“It’s [only] 24 hours. You have to work for eight hours and you have to sleep for six hours. They wanted better [results] this year so they started earlier, will last longer, will have a bigger impact and, of course, will make more transactions happen,” Zhang said.Jack Ma said the event was more than “just the largest shopping day in the world”. He said: “This festival is a thermometer for the Chinese economy.”Singles’ Day isn’t popular with everyone though.“For women it’s a joy; for men it’s a tragedy,” one male shopper told the International Business Times, hinting at the financial burden of the festival’s unrestrained consumerism.Hopefully this particular beleaguered man doesn’t end up like the poor husband last year who curled up with a scarecrow in a concrete pipe after his wife blew two months of his wages on 11/11.Australian moms also aren’t very fond of China’s record-setting shopping holiday.By Daniel Paul & Stanley Yu